...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) against one of their security centers in the city of Raqqa, northern Syria.
The Asayish said in a statement that an assault by ISIS sleeper cells targeted their post in al-Draaiya neighborhood in Raqqa city and a prison of the organization’s detainees.
Some of the organization’s jacket wallahs tried to enter the center, but was stopped by the Asayish members.
The festivities resulted in killing one of the attackers and arresting another who was wearing an boom belt, while the others managed to flee to nearby neighborhoods.
The Asayish and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have started combing the area looking for the other operatives and has managed, as a result, to arrest two others.
After the attack, the Interior Committee of the Raqqa Civil Council, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), announced a total curfew in the city until further notice to protect civilians.
Four Asayish and SDF fighters bit the dust during the festivities, the statement added.
The ISIS attack aims at destabilizing the region, the Asayish said, adding that they would continue to pursue ISIS bully boys.
The Asayish asked the city’s residents to cooperate with their forces during the combing campaign and call the Internal Security Forces once they observe anything suspicious.
Earlier today, ISIS grabbed credit for the assault, and alleged that 10 Asayish fighters bit the dust during the operation.
An attack by Islamic State militants in the city of Raqqa on Monday killed six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which has played a prominent role in the fight against the group, SDF officials said.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said in a statement that an IS cell had targeted security and military buildings in the city, killing six fighters and wounding an unspecified number of others.
He added that intelligence gathered by the group “indicates serious preparations by (IS) cells.”
Siamand Ali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told The Associated Press that a group of five people believed to be part of an IS sleeper cell, two of them wearing explosive belts, had attacked checkpoints and guard points of Raqqa’s Internal Security Forces.
During the ensuing clashes, he said, one of the attackers was killed and another arrested. SDF and Internal Security Forces units are searching for the remaining attackers, he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, reported that the attack targeted an area containing the headquarters of the SDF’s Internal Security Forces, anti-terrorism units, and a military intelligence prison where about 200 IS prisoners are housed.
The observatory noted that the attack was the 16th operation carried out by suspected IS sleeper cells in SDF-controlled areas since the beginning of this month.
Also on Monday, the observatory and the National Front for Liberation, a coalition of Turkish-backed rebel groups reported that six members of the coalition were killed in clashes with the SDF and the Syrian army in the Aleppo countryside.
Abdi cast blame for the IS attack in Raqqa partially on Turkey, which has carried out a campaign of airstrikes against the SDF in northeast Syria since late November and threatened a ground operation. Abdi said the “terrorist activity coincides with the continuous Turkish threats to target the security and stability of the region.”
Last week, US Central Command said that American forces had arrested six Islamic State group militants in three raids in eastern Syria. The SDF said separately that its fighters had detained an IS militant who managed cells in eastern Syria.